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Our Halloween this year was a cool Friday with an excellent chance of rain. Queen Elsa and Princess Anna from the land of Arendelle inspired our warm sweatshirt costumes. We trick-or-treated in our neighborhood and around to the Grandparents house before the rain started. On one side street the girls met up with some friends and they all trick-or-treated that street together. Grammy gave us a ride to the trunk-or-treat that was also in the neighborhood. After playing with more school friends and doing crafts we headed home for dinner and a special showing of Frozen.

The girls need some practice in assertiveness. Getting them to knock loud enough on the door and saying trick-or-treat seemed to be a struggle for them. They were much better with the thank you at the end.

The costume backs!

Trick-or-Treating with the much more outgoing neighborhood kids! At this point the fun of meeting up with friends, seeing Grandparents, and crafting with school friends is much more fun and important to the girls than how much candy they get. Hopefully it will stay that way!

The girls celebrated their birthdays (Emily 8 – January, Julia 6 – October) in another joint party. It did not take too much convincing to get them to agree to a tea party with their favorite dolls and friends. The party was at a local shop that specializes in this type of party. It involved dress-up time including a quick hair up-do and accessories, a photo shoot, tea party, birthday treats, and gift time. The party was a lot of fun. The girls loved it and their mama loved it. The party’s theme was inspired by the movie Frozen.

Emily’s chosen look for her and her "Emily" doll. Her dress was white with blue/green accents, blue/green gloves and boa, and white heeled shoes.

Julia’s chosen look was all pink. Every item was pink with the exception of the clear shoes that lit-up with each step. The friend she brought with her was her Minnie Mouse.

This was a place setting for each girl. The doll friends each got a table setting too. The Olaf dessert was the special touch the girls picked for the party. The tea was pink lemonade.

Our table filled with seven lovely princesses waiting for the birthday wishes to be made. Thanks friends for joining us and making the party such a success!

Princess Emily checking out her new look.

Princess Julia taking good care of her special friend, Minnie.

The girls finishing the party off with holding court with their gifts.

We celebrated Halloween at Ms. Laurel and Mr. Shawn’s house. The girls had been asking to go out and see our friends and ride their horses, so we made sure we got an invitation. All of us seem to enjoy this yearly event. The girls didn’t have any fear of the horses this year. They rode without saddles and the only complaint I heard was that their rear-ends were a bit sore. Julia especially kept asking for another trip around the yard. The day was beautiful and dry. The evening cooled off a lot when the sun went down, but by then we were settled inside for food and pumpkin carving. No good photos of the pumpkins, but Laurel and Shawn did a great job carving the girls’ original designs. New this year was some additional friends added to the party. Another young family (if we still get to call ourselves a young family) joined in the fun. Their daughter was uncertain about the horse, but once she got started, she did not want to get off either. Our girls enjoyed having two more little people to hang out with.

Emily enjoying herself.

Our new Halloween party friends.

Riding around the yard.

The only thing Julia didn’t seem to enjoy about the evening was looking at the camera. Oh well. Another successful party. Thanks Laurel and Shawn.

Fall has come and with it comes our littlest’s birthday. This year marks the sixth celebration. Wow! Every year there is such a change, but this year has some of the biggest we have seen. First and foremost is that Julia is a school-girl. Kindergarten has been a joy for her. The second and just as huge is the explosion in communication we hear from her. She asserts herself into any conversation she can, she learned the art of interrupting Emily’s stream of words, she is learning the first sight words, and big words are no longer intimidating. Just yesterday she informed her mama, "you misunderstood what I said". For our late verbal bloomer this is such a big deal!

She loves picking out her own clothes and has learned the love of all things shoes. Her play involves a lot of imaginary play and involves small figures. Her collection of homes, schools, playgrounds, and clinics for the figures continues to grow and brings her delight. School has been incorporated into this play and there is a lot of learning, rules, and lines.

Facial expressions are also a difference between the girls. Emily seems to have her normal mood faces, but Julia has those and more. Taking photos of her is a challenge when she is wanting to pull from the less standard smile face. But on the other hand having a collection of different smiles, pouts, grins, and pure silliness is fun too.

We love our girl for all of her new skills and years we have been blessed to have her with us! Happy Birthday, Julia!

We enjoyed a beautiful and a bit muddy morning at the pumpkin patch. The girls love the extra fun games that go with the maze and pumpkin patch. They rode the slide and bounced a lot. It is a wonder they had energy to do anything else. We did half of the big maze with the girls taking turns leading the way. Each girl searched the pumpkin patch for the perfect pumpkin. Emily wanted a small one and Julia wanted one she could carry. The sun shined on us and a breeze kept us cool. It was a perfect way to spend the morning with Grandma and Grandpa.

We celebrated the return of cooler weather with a short hike in the arboretum. The rain wanted to celebrate too, so we didn’t stay out too long. The girls were more interested in playing than posing for their Mama.

The bridges are fun to explore and dance on.

Shy grins can be shared.

A short hike, lots of silliness, a few shivers, fresh air, and a fun visit.